Best predictor of sustained weight-loss? Prefrontal cortex activation
Figure 3. Weight Loss at Month 1 Correlated with Changes in BOLD in Regions Associated with Cognitive Control. Credit: Selin Neseliler et al
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New research suggests that higher-level brain functions have a major role in losing weight. In a study among 24 participants at a weight-loss clinic, those who achieved greatest success in terms of weight loss demonstrated more activity in the brain regions of the lateral prefrontal cortex associated with self-control.
“What we found is that in humans, the control of body weight is dependent largely on the areas of the brain involved in self-control and self-regulation,” say...
Source: SharpBrains - October 22, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Cell Press Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness calorie restriction diet cognitive-behavioral-therapy cognitive-control fMRI higher-level brain functions lateral prefrontal cortex self-control self-regulation Weight-loss Source Type: blogs
Surprising New Pain Relief Methods
If you are one of the more than 100 million Americans suffering with chronic pain, you know how desperate you can get searching for relief. For constant or chronic pain, sometimes knowing that you can only get temporary relief from medications sits at the back of your brain and sets up pain anticipation.
Shouldn’t there be a better way, an approach or approaches that don’t rely on pharmaceutical drugs to combat pain? According to new research, there are some new pain relief methods that look very promising to do just that.
Treatment from Strangers Mat Provide Unexpected Pain Relief
It may seem counter-intuitive, yet a...
Source: World of Psychology - October 21, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Suzanne Kane Tags: Chronic Pain Health-related Mental Health and Wellness Mindfulness Psychology Research Treatment Source Type: blogs
Anterior STEMI and multiform PVCs with Narrow Coupling Interval. When to give beta blockers in acute MI?
Conclusion of first report:In patients with anterior Killip class II or less ST-segment –elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention, early intravenous metoprolol before reperfusion reduced infarct size and increased left ventricular ejection fraction with no excess of adverse events during the first 24 hours after STEMI.Conclusion of 2nd report: In patients with anterior Killip class ≤II STEMI undergoing pPCI, early IV metoprolol before reperfusion resulted in higher long-term LVEF, reduced incidence of severe LV systolic dysfunction and ICD indications, and fewer h...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - October 19, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs
How to feel better about yourself if you are depressed
Today is National Depression Screening Day. If you are experiencing symptoms of depression, you should know that there are effective treatments and help is available.
When you are depressed, your self-esteem wanes and you may start to dislike yourself. People with depression often think of themselves as “worthless, incapable of any achievement, and morally despicable.” Why do people who are depressed have this negative self-appraisal? And what could be happening in their brains?
The study: In 2017, researcher and psychiatrist Christopher Davey and his colleagues compared the brain blood flow of 86 unmedicated depressed...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 11, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Srini Pillay, MD Tags: Mental Health Screening Source Type: blogs
Timing Training in Female Soccer Players: Effects on Skilled Movement Performance and Brain Responses
ConclusionIn summary, this is the first controlled study demonstrating that improved motor timing and multisensory integration, as an effect of SMT, also is associated with changes in functional brain response. The present study provides both behavioral and neurophysiological evidence that timing training positively influences soccer-skill, strengthens the action-perception coupling by means of enhanced sensorimotor synchronization abilities, and affect underlying brain responses. These findings are in accordance with the idea that SMT may result in increased brain communication efficiency and synchrony between brain regio...
Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) - September 29, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Tags: brain clock Brain network integration brain networks human brain clock IM Interactive Metronome interventions mental timing neural efficiency rhythm temporal processing Source Type: blogs
Bi-annual MRI More Effective than Annual Mammogram for Breast Cancer Detection
This study could significantly change the way we approach breast cancer screening." MRI is much more sensitive than mammography, " saidGreg Karczmar, PhD, professor of radiology at the University of Chicago. " It can find invasive breast cancers sooner than mammograms and it can rule out abnormalities that appear suspicious on a mammogram. Unfortunately, MRI is much too expensive for routine screening. " (Source: radRounds)
Source: radRounds - September 20, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Researchers Develop Protocol That Improves Bone Metastases Detection by 30 Percent
At the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, researchers have developed a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that improves the detection of bone metastases in the body and is a quicker process than a conventional MRI scan.Bone metastases consist of abnormal cells from the initial tumor site, and occurwhen the tumor spreads to the bone. Bone metastases can weaken and break bones, cause numbness, weakness, and compress the spinal cord. The condition can also have negative consequences on the bone marrow. Swift detection of bone metastases can prevent these symptoms. However, timely detection can be c...
Source: radRounds - September 13, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Fractal Discovery Could Quadruple the Speed of MRI
Researchers from the University of Queensland are using fractals to accelerate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, which would make them less expensive to process.In a studyrecently published inIEEE Transactions on Image Processing,Shekhar Chandra, PhD, a lecturer at the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, has identified a new mathematical pattern, or fractals, which could increase the MRI processing time by four-fold. According to Dr. Chandra, this is the biggest fractal discovery since the 1970s, and the first time the science is being used in MRI technology.A fractal is an infinite pattern...
Source: radRounds - September 13, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
How to Keep From Repeating Mistakes
“Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent.” – Billy Graham
How many times have you made a mistake and instantly remember you’ve made it before? Most people have this experience and recognize it when it becomes a pattern. If they fail to see the similarities between the current mistake and a past or previous one, however, they’re likely destined to repeat it multiple times. It doesn’t have to be this way. You can profit from mistakes — particularly ones that recur frequently — if you pay heed to how to keep from repeating mistakes.
W...
Source: World of Psychology - August 22, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Suzanne Kane Tags: Motivation and Inspiration Self-Help Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 6th 2018
In this study, we analyzed FGF21 levels and alterations in the expression of genes encoding components of the FGF21-responsive molecular machinery in adipose tissue from aged individuals so as to ascertain whether altered FGF21 responsiveness that develops with aging jeopardizes human health and/or accelerates metabolic disturbances associated with aging.
We studied a cohort of 28 healthy elderly individuals (≥70 years) with no overt signs of metabolic or other pathologies and compared them with a cohort of 35 young healthy controls (≤40 years). Serum FGF21 levels were significantly increased in elderly individ...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 5, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Tracing The Future of Forensic Medicine
Realistic genetic photo fits, portable diagnostic labs and microbiomes are all new elements in the tool-kit of medical professionals in forensic medicine to catch criminals and solve complex cases. Reality is not at all CSI, but not because of the lack of high-tech, but due to the distortions of television. Let’s see how the future of forensic medicine might look in actuality.
CSI and its effect
Ultraviolet cameras showing bruises healed a while ago. Luminol displaying traces of blood on leather jackets. UV lights like lightsabers scouring over empty rooms to find saliva, semen or any fluid to do a DNA exam in a high-tec...
Source: The Medical Futurist - July 26, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Bioethics Biotechnology Future of Medicine Genomics AI artificial intelligence crime CSI DNA forensic forensic medicine forensic science genetics microbiome police Source Type: blogs
Study finds clear –yet surprisingly different–benefits in 3 types of meditation-based mental training
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As citizens of the 21st century, we face many problems that come with an industrialized and globalized world. I’m not a lawyer or a politician, but a psychologist and neuroscientist. So research on how to train helpful mental and social capacities is my way to contribute to a more healthy, communal, and cooperative civilization.
For the past five years, that research has taken the form of the ReSource Project, one of the longest and most comprehensive studies on the effects of meditation-based mental training to date. Lots of research treats the concept of meditation as a single practice, when in fact meditation...
Source: SharpBrains - July 11, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greater Good Magazine Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning Health & Wellness affective attention behavior brain cognitive-abilities compassion higher-level meditation meditation-based mental-training mindfulness Psychology ReSource Source Type: blogs
The Neuroscience of Pain | The New Yorker
On a foggy February morning in Oxford, England, I arrived at the John Radcliffe Hospital, a shiplike nineteen-seventies complex moored on a hill east of the city center, for the express purpose of being hurt. I had an appointment with a scientist named Irene Tracey, a brisk woman in her early fifties who directs Oxford University's Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and has become known as the Queen of Pain."We might have a problem with you being a ginger," she warned when we met. Redheads typically perceive pain differently from those with other hair colors; many also flinch at the use of the G-wo...
Source: Psychology of Pain - June 25, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Elekta Unity, a Revolutionary Combo of MRI and Linear Accelerator, Cleared in Europe
Elekta won European CE Mark approval for its Unity system that combines magnetic resonance imaging with a linear accelerator for highly targeted, real-time radiotherapy. The technology was originally the brainchild of physicists at UMC Utrecht in The Netherlands. Before their research found breakthroughs, it was believed that combining an MRI machine and a particle accelerator was impossible. Fast moving, electrically charged particles are strongly influenced by a powerful magnetic field, so keeping them on track while near an MRI seemed like an impossibility. On our recent visit to UMC Utrecht, we learned that though it s...
Source: Medgadget - June 19, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Radiation Oncology Radiology Source Type: blogs
Shock index and modified shock index for prediction of myocardial damage and clinical outcome of STEMI
Shock index is the ratio of heart rate to systolic blood pressure which allows rapid bedside risk stratification [1]. Modified shock index is the ratio of heart rate to mean arterial pressure [2]. Reinstadler SJ et al [2] used these indices to predict the myocardial damage and clinical outcome of ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). They found that STEMI patients with elevated shock index had more severe myocardial and microvascular damage and it was associated with major adverse cardiac events (MACE) at 1 year.
This multicenter study analyzed around eight hundred patients dicotomized to an admission shock ...
Source: Cardiophile MD - June 6, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs
